Tax & Trade Blog

As a tax lawyer assisting clients in defending themselves against the all-powerful CRA (and its equally powerful ally, the Department of Justice – Canada’s largest and best-equipped law firm), I welcome any judicial decisions that help to right that power imbalance. 

Justice Patrick Boyle’s recent decision in Frigorific Warehouse is an exceptional attempt at addressing an inherent problem with Canada’s GST/HST system, which lacks proper mechanisms to deal with tax rogues who gain access to the CRA’s registration system to charge, collect and abscond with GST/HST funds from unsuspecting Canadian businesses. The CRA’s traditional position has been to attempt to recover the lost GST/HST from these unsuspecting businesses (by denying them input tax credits – “ITCs”). Justice Boyle’s decision seems to put that ability into serious question!

In December 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the Crown’s application for Leave to Appeal the Federal Court of Appeal (“FCA”) decision in Canada v. Dr. Kevin L. Davis Dentistry Professional Corporation 2023 FCA 76(“Davis”), leaving the FCA decision as the state of the law.  The FCA had upheld the Tax Court of Canada’s (“TCC”) judgment (2021 TCC 25) allowing Dr. Davis to claim input tax credits (“ITCs”) incurred in the course of suppling orthodontic appliances and services to patients.